Ahead of this week’s Fed decision on interest rates, Art Cashin discusses the weakening global economy and what to expect from the Fed tomorrow.

On The Floor Monday… (King World News) – Here is today’s note from legend Art Cashin:  On this day in almost any year, you can tell what day it is by looking for the signs. Of course, what signs you look for depend on just where you live, particularly if you live on an island. If you live on an island near Capistrano you look for swallows, for this is the day they return. Or, if you are on the island in the park in Hinckley, Ohio you look for buzzards – – for truly, this is the day that they return each year.

But, if you are on an island named Staten, you look for red carnations and pastry trucks – – for this is the Feast of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph if you went to an Ivy League School). The Feast of the “Patron of the Family” is the perfect excuse to stuff yourself and your friends with gobs of cream or dough and sugar, baked, fried or whatever and masquerading under names like: zeppoles, sfingi and cannolis. It’s an Italian wink at the Lenten calendar – and a tasty wink at that!

There were no pastries on the floor Monday but things could hardly have worked out sweeter for the bulls.

Stocks began the day mixed to mildly better to start the week. Helping lift prices was strength in the financial, energy and consumer discretionary sectors.

In late morning, new questions popped up in the Boeing story and that caused a mild downdraft in the Dow and S&P. The bulls regrouped shortly before noon and for the balance of the session, stocks moved slowly but steadily higher.

There was a bit of a flip in the final minutes, which was caused by a sudden shift in the market on close indications.

At about 3:45, the closing imbalances shifted from $500 million to sell to $700 to buy. That produced a mild spike in the averages.

Another good day for the bulls.

When Seasonal Patterns Collide – This week’s action could be very interesting as two normally reliable seasonal patterns appear ready to collide.

The first is the tendency of the market to move lower in the week following a quarterly Expiration. This is especially true after a March Expiration. Tom McClellan points out that the week after a March Expiration has been down in 24 of the last 31 years. Jason Goepfert adds that the March pattern has worked in seven of the last seven years.

On the other side, we have the Fed meeting and the “Fed drift”. The Fed drift is the tendency for stocks to rally in front of a Fed decision, especially those followed by a press conference.…..more here